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THOMAS HANSFORD 



Jirst Native Martyr to American Liberty, 



A paper read before the Virginia Historical Society 
Tuesday, December 22, i8gi. 



Mrs. ANNIE (tucker) TYLER, 

Willia m sburg, Virgin ia . 



THONdAS HANSFORD, 



First Native Martyr to American Liberty. 



In a list prepared by Sir William Berkeley, and preserved 
among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, enumerating 
the persons who were executed by him in the seventeenth cen- 
tury for participating in Bacon's Rebellion, occurs the name of 
one Thomas Hansford, who is described by Sir William as "a 
valiant, stout man," and "a most resolved rebel. "^ The few 
other references to Hansford in the current accounts ^ of the times 
are in harmony with this description, and justify a natural desire 
to be still further acquainted with him. 

Thus are we told that he commanded at Jamestown, under 
a commission as major from Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., and was there 
when Berkeley returned from his exile to the Eastern Shore at the 
head of six hundred, or, as another account has it, one thousand 
followers. It is said that he took a conspicuous part in the in- 
surrection, brilliant as it was brief, and when he was captured 
after Bacon's death, he supplicated no other favor than that "he 
might be shot like a soldier, and not hanged like a dog." We 
are also told that during the short respite allowed him after his 
sentence, " he professed repentance and contrition for all the 
sins of his past life, but refused to acknowledge what was 



^ Neill's Virginia Carolorum. 

'Accounts by "T. M.," Anne Cotton, &c. 



194 VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

charged against him as rebellion to be one of those sins, desiring 
the people present to take notice that he died a loyal subject and 
lover of his country, and that he had never taken up arms but 
for the destruction of the Indians, who had murdered so many 
Christians." 

St. George Tucker, my revered father, trusting to the state- 
ment found in one of the quaint old tracts rescued from oblivion 
by the indefatigable antiquarian, Peter Force, which ascribes 
his arrest to the fact that " although a son ot Mars, he did some- 
times worship at the shrine of Venus," made Thomas Hansford 
the hero of a romance^ in which the gentle Virginia Temple was 
the innocent cause of his undoing. 

When I recite the personal history of Hansford, and disclose 
the fact that he was a married man, it will probably occasion 
some surprise that he should have been represented as an ardent 
suitor at the time of his execution, but the truth is. that until a 
recent date there was very little reality surrounding Hansford's 
career. Nor was he an exception among the characters of the 
period in which he figured. How few and scant are the pub- 
lished facts concerning another of Bacon's officers, Major Ed- 
mund Chisman, and his noble wife, who took upon herself the 
entire blame of his sedition ; or of Major Thomas Whaley and 
"thoughtful Mr. Lawrence," who when the cause was abandoned 
plunged into the snows of the unknown backwoods and were lost 
to the knowledge of their fellow men. The old published chron- 
iclers tell us very little of Bacon himself, and yet, thanks to re- 
cent investigations in the county records and the British archives, 
the material is now abundant for a full account. 

In the same manner careful research has added many new facts 
to the current account of Thomas Hansford, and the only merit 
of this paper is that it will attempt to present these facts in a 
connected narrative. 

In 1 65 1, Richard Hansford was granted a patent for lands at 
West's creek, in York county, and among the head rights were 
John and Elizabeth Hansford. In 1658, Mr, John Hansford 
entered land in the same locality ; and in 1662, Thomas Hansford 



^Thomas Hansford : A tale of Bacon's Rebellion, published by Geo. 
M. West, Richmond, Va., 1857 ; republished after the war by a Phila- 
delphia firm, under the title "The Devoted Bride." 



THOMAS HANSFORD. 195 

obtained a re-grant for the same. In 1653, John Hansford 
obtained a grant for 950 acres in Gloucester county, north of 
the narrows of Mattaponi, and among the head rights were John 
and Ehzabeth Hansford. The probabihty is that Richard Hans- 
ford was a brother of John Hansford, who was the father of 
Thomas, mentioned as taking out the patent in 1662 for John 
Hansford's land on West's creek." 

John Hansford might have been a son of the merchant tailor 
of London of the same name mentioned by Mr. Alexander 
Brown in his " Genesis," as entered in a list of the Virginia 
Company in 1620, and who was probably brother of Sir Hum- 
phrey Hanford, Handford, or Hanforth, as the name is variously 
written. 

There is no question, however, that the John Hansford of the 
patents and the John Hansford who was father of the Hansford 
of history, were one and the same person. He lived on the 
same creek and in the same county, and was for many years 
active in the affairs of York county,^ and in 1655 occupied a seat 
on the Justices' Bench. His will was proved November 24, 1661, 
and judging from the number of servants and the amount of silver 
plate, and other property mentioned in his inventory, recorded 
June 24, 1668, he was a man of both wealth and position. 
According to his will he left four sons — ^John and William, to 
whom he devised a plantation in Gloucester county, upon the 
" Clay bank " on the north side of York river, and Thomas and 
Charles, to whom he left 650 acres at the head of Felgate's 
creek, in York county. He had also three daughters — Eliza- 
beth, who married first Mr. Christian Wilson and afterwards Mr. 
Randolph Holt,^ of Surry county ; Mary, who married Dr. 
Thomas Robins, of Robins' Neck, in Gloucester county, and 
whose family history is given by Mr. Stanard in the " Richmond 
Critic" for August, 1889; and Margaret, who is supposed to 
have been dead before October, 1667. 



* See Register in Land Office. 

*John Hansford appears as an inhabitant of Chiskiack, subsequently 
called Hampton Parish, in York county, as early as 1647. 

^See Randolph Holt's receipt to Mr. Lockey, October 20, 1663, York 
Records. [The name is sometimes rendered Randall Holt — Ed.] 



196 VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

By the will of Mr. Hansford we are shown another important 
fact, which is that one Robert Jones was the instructor of his 
children ; and it is not a little remarkable that a man of that 
name is mentioned by Hening as among those executed with 
Thomas Hansford for rebellious proceedings.^ 

Thomas Hansford, the third son of Mr. John Hansford, was 
born about 1646, as I infer from his deposition, dated January 
9, 167^, which states that he was then twenty-five years old. 
He came into possession of his property, both real and personal, 
November 12, 1667, and the order states that " he was then of 
age." 

After his father's death he was under the guardianship of Mr. 
Edward Lockey, a rich merchant of Virginia, largely interested 
in the tobacco trade, who had married Mrs. Hansford, the 
mother of Thomas, on October 10, 1661. Both were dead 
before the disturbances under Bacon arose. Mr. Lockey died 
before February 24, 1667, and Mrs. Lockey before January 24, 
167 5-6, these being the respective dates of the recording of 
their wills. * 

Notwithstanding the testimony of Romance, which represents 
Thomas Hansford as a single man at the time of his execution, 
we find the court, on April 10, 1667, entering an order against 
Mr. John Roberts, guardian of Mistress Elizabeth Jones, daugh- 
ter of Richard Jones, ^ deceased, to deliver his ward's estate in 
kind to Thomas Hansford as intermarrying with the said Eliza- 
beth." This Elizabeth had two brothers, GabrieP" and Rich- 
ard, but they soon died without issue and she became sole heir- 
ess of her father's property, thus bringing a considerable fortune 
to her husband. 

Hansford's marriage occurred nine years before Bacon's 
Rebellion, and his family at that time was of considerable figure, 
consisting of a wife and five children. 

During these nine years we catch an occasional glimpse of 
him in the courts. A deposition, in June, 1668, declares that 



'Hening, Vol. II, p. 550. 

** York county records. 

"Richard Jones' will proved 12 November, 1660. 

'"Will proved January 10, 1670. 



THOMAS HANSFORD. 197 

passing by the cow-pen he tauntingly bid " Ann Huddlestone's 
Dame " to go and rob the onion patch again. " Can you prove 
your words?" she indignantly said. "Yes," was the reply. 
He was sued for defamation of character. After the same man- 
ner, he accused Dr. William Townsend of purloining from 
Squire Digges's old field a foal which he himself had branded 
for Digges. In another suit he won 200 pounds of tobacco from 
Abraham Ray for damages done his (Hansford's) horse. And 
Thomas Reade, his servant, who ran away, was required by the 
court to make equivalent service for the cost and trouble of his 
capture. 

The uprising of the people at the call of Nathaniel Bacon, 
Jr., summoned Hansford to more serious controversies ; but 
here, I regret to say, we cannot add much to what is already 
familiarly known. We are aware that many of the leading gentry 
adhered to Governor Berkeley, but not all, as in York county 
both Thomas Hansford and Major Edmund Chisman were 
trusted officers of Bacon, who was himself of the ancient house 
of Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam. Certain, it is, that both 
sides plundered and pillaged private estates, and a guerrilla war- 
fare prevailed through all the colony. Hansford, according to 
Robert Beverley," was commander-in-chief of four counties 
and president of the Court of Sequestrations. Probably it was 
while engaged one day in looking up the sequestered estate of a 
Royalist that he met up with the gallant Captain William Digges, 
eldest son of Colonel Edward Diggs, of Bellfield, in York 
county, and in a single handed fight with him was so unfortunate 
as to lose one of his fingers. Digges forced him to fly, but the 
tables were turned shortly after, and Digges had himself to 
flee to Maryland for safety. The writer of the MS.^^ from 
which this fact is gleaned adds that " for her son's loyalty his 
mother (Mrs. Elizabeth Digges) suffered considerably in her 
estate." 

I do not propose to give a history of the Rebellion. Just at 
the time when Virginia acknowledged no other authority than 
Bacon's, he was taken ill and died, and thus the cause which he 



" Hening's Statutes, Vol. Ill, p. 567. 
^^In Virginia State Library. 



198 VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. , 

represented received a fatal blow. Berkeley re-established his 
authority as rapidly as he had lost it. Some of the lieutenants 
of Bacon were hanged, others died in prison, and others left the 
colony. Hansford was one of those who suffered the first-men- 
tioned fate, and is said to have been the first native Virginian 
that perished in that ignominious form, and the first martyr that 
fell in defending the rights of the people. His execution took 
place in Accomac.'* 

From June, 1676, the beginning of the conflict, to March, 
167?, when the end had came, there appears to have been no 
court held in York county, as far as the records testify. Bacon 
had compelled the justices, in the celebrated meeting at the Mid- 
dle Plantation, to administer to the people the oath of allegiance 
to his cause; and in a letter dated February 17, 167?, they now 
besought the Governor to " indemnify " them by name for obey- 
ing the mandate, and to indicate " who should be justices for 
York county." 

The Governor, on March 23d, immediately re-appointed all 
except John Scarsbrooke, whose case was reserved for the deci- 
sion of the Council on account of suspicions, connecting him 
with the rebellion. And on March 31st, he further ordered that 
the sessions of the county court should be held " in the house 
lately belonging to Thomas Hansford, whose estate for his rebel- 
lion and treason is forfeited to his sacred Majesty."'* So said 
Governor Berkeley, but it appears, however, that the property of 
Thomas Hansford was not confiscated. In spite of a formal 
petition (addressed to the commissioners sent over from Eng- 
land to enquire into the late disturbances) by the justices of York 
county, John Page, John Scarsbrooke (lately restored), James 
Vaulx, Otho Thorpe and Isaac Clopton, that the property of 
Hansford should be seized for a courthouse, the want of which 
in the county had annually imposed a heavy burden in the way of 
rent upon the people, the commissioners, with a humanity which 
did them credit, reported to the king in favor of bestowing the 

" He was captured by Major Robert Beverley, at the house of Colonel 
George Reade, deceased, situated where Yorktown now is. Colonel 
Reade had been a member of the Council. 

"York county records. 



THOMAS HANSFORD. 199 

property of Hansford and "those other wretched" men lately 
associated with him upon "their poor wives and children. "^^ 
And this was doubtless the explanation why, on November 13, 
1678, "a commission of administration on the estate of Mr. 
Thomas Hansford was granted to Mr. Charles Hansford and Mr. 
David Condon in behalf of ye decedent's children, &c." 

Previous to this the same parties had qualified on the estate of 
Mrs. Thomas Hansford, who within a year had followed her 
martyred husband to the grave. 

An agreement, dated February 26, i677-'78, was made between 
the administrators and the iustices representing the county, by 
which the house " lately belonging to Mrs. Hansford " was 
leased to the county for one thousand pounds of tobacco per 
annum — an arrangement which continued until January 20, 
1679-' 80, when the place of adjournment was changed to the 
" French Ordinary," not far distant on the York road, half way 
between Williamsburg and Yorktown. 



'^The petition of the Justices ran as follows: "And whereas Thomas 
Hansford sufifered death as a traitor and thereby forfeited his Land 
to the King, the Court humbly prays the seventy acres of Land given 
him by his ffather's will to build a courthouse for the use of the said 
county forever, having been formerly forced to pay 4000 lb. of Tob 
yearly, w'ch hath been very burthensome to the county. 

(Signed,) "John Page, 

"John Scarsbrooke, 
"James Vaulx, 
' Otho Thorpe, 
" Isaac Clopton." 
On which the commissioners reported : 

" We humbly hope that his Majesty will be gratuitously pleased to 
give the Estate of these wretched men to there poore wives and chil- 
dren, w'ch will be an act of great mercy." 

A petition from the inhabitants of another county prayed that "this 
present grand assembly would make an act of oblivion that no person 
may be Injured by the provoking names of Rebells, Traitors and 
Rogues." To which the commissioners, Sir John Berry, Colonel Her- 
bert Jeffreys and Colonel Francis Morrison, added : '' We Joyne w'th 
the Petitioners herein to his Majesty that noe pretence may obstruct the 
obtaining and good effect of it, and thus wee have layd it most humbly 
before his Ma'ty as a most likely means to secure the quiet of his s'd 
Colony." MSS. in Virginia State Library. 



200 VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

Of the children of Thomas Hansford, John was afflicted and* 
died in i6Si. EHzabeih married Richard Burt, Mary married 
WilHam Hewitt, and Thomas and VVilham married and died in 
York county leaving descendants. 

The will of Thomas Hansford's son, William Hansford, was 
recorded July 24, 1709, and mentions a wife, Mary, who seems 
to have been a sister of David Morce, called in the will " brother- 
in-law," and three sons, William, Thomas, and David, and one 
daughter, Elizabeth, all under age. 

The will of the other son, Thomas, was recorded June 20, 
1720, and his children were Thomas and William, Elizabeth, 
Sarah, Mary, and Martha Hansford. William died in 1733, and 
left a wife, Mary, and son, Lewis who had four sons living in 
1765.'® Mary Steele, in her will proved in York county court, 
July 20, 1767, calls Lewis Hansford her son-in-law. Thomas 
was living in 1736.^' 

Charles Hansford, youngest brother of Major Thomas Hans- 
ford, married Elizabeth Moody, daughter of Rev. Edward 
Foliott, of Hampton Parish, and relict of Josias Moody, son o^ 
Dr. Giles Mode, a Frenchman, whose name was corrupted into 
Moody, and who is the founder of that family in Virginia. He 
left, in 1702,'^ three sons, Charles, William and John, and four 
daughters, Elizabeth and Mary Hansford, Lydia Duke, wife of 
"Mr. Henry Duke," and Martha, who married Samuel Hill. 
Of these John long kept an ordinary at the half-way house be- 
tween Williamsburg and Yorktown. Charles Hansford, the 
second'^ of that name, had issue, a daughter Lucy, who mar- 
ried John Hyde, and a son also, named Charles. The third 
Charles lived till 1778, and on the 21st December, 1778, his 



'* Dr. Lewis Hansford, of Norfolk, was alive in 1805. 

''Thomas Hansford, of Elizabeth City, married Hannah, daughter of 
John Davis, and a granddaughter of John R. Davis (who died in 1784), 
a lieutenant in the State navy during the Revolution. On 18th Decem- 
ber, 1784, a Thomas Hansford obtained a license in York county to 
marry " Elizabeth Lilburne, widow." 

^^ Charles Hansford's will was proved fuly 24, 1702. 

'^Charles Hansford's will was proved June 15, 1761. The York 
county records mention Charles Hansford and Susannah his wife 
executors of Joseph Wade. 



- THOMAS HANSFORD. 201 

will was proved in York county court. He left two sons, 
Richard and Benjamin, and three daughters — Elizabeth or Betsy, 
who in 1769 married'"* John Camm, the treasurer of the College 
of William and Mary, and afterwards president of the same ; 
Mary, who in July, 1775, married'^' Rev. Samuel Sheild, minister 
of Drysdale parish, in Caroline county, and Martha, who 
married Edward Harwood, and subsequently Robert Sheild, of 
York county, brother of said Samuel, and great-grandfa'her of 
William H. Sheild, M. D., assistant physician at the Eastern 
Lunatic Asylum. 

As to the Gloucester branch of the Hansford family, William, 
elder brother of Major Thomas Hansford, had a son William 
living there in 1706.'*^ 

The Hansford blood mingles with that of the Pattesons, 
Camms, Hydes,"^ Hills, Custises, and many other well-known 
families in Virginia to-day. ^^ 

This ends my paper. Genealogical investigations, though 
necessarily personal, are nevertheless valuable. A people with- 
out pride in their past are no people at all. And 1 cordially 
echo the sentiment expressed by Professor Garnett in his excel- 
lent paper read last night : " Perish the day when the son forgets 
the father." 

Annie Tucker Tyler. 

20 Virj^ifiia Gazette. 

21 Ibid. 

■^^ York county records. Petsoe Parish Vestry-Book. 

^^Dr. John Hansford Hyde died in Lexington, Va., April i, 1851. 
Captain Robert Hyde served in the Revolutionary army as an artificer; 
came to Richmond in 17SS. 

"Charles Hansford, at present living in Williamsburg, is descended 
from Charles, brother of Major Thomas Hansford. His father was 
Benjamin Hansford, who married Sarah Wynne ; grandfather, Richard 
Hansford, who married Lucy Dndley Haynes. 



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